Saturday, July 4, 2009

Sun Shade Fabric

My new picnic table has already come in handy! I bought some sun shade fabric for my booth at the Portland Saturday Market. It is really hot and sunny lately - I replaced the top of my booth with this sun-shade fabric that lets in air and light, but cuts down on the heat.So far all I have done is take 2 pieces of the fabric (it comes on a huge long roll of 50ft x 6ft) and sew them together to make one bit 12ft square (I used staples as pins to hold it in place as I sew, they worked smashingly, in fact I never even bothered to take them out). I used my new picnic table to hold the sewing machine - I've never worked with such big pieces of fabric before, the picnic table was perfect!Then this morning I simply used clamps to hold it in place over my booth. Sorta ghetto fabulous - but it worked. Next week I will take it home again and sew the corners so it fits a bit better, possibly put a little love into the edges, that wouldn't hurt. Either way, it works, and it looks great. I think it helped too. It was a beautiful day (see picture below) but it was hot hot hot in Portland terms (I heard it was 98degrees this afternoon) and my booth is in the full sun.The wonderful gals of the tie-die booth on the left side of this picture were the ones with the brilliant idea of using shade fabric. When I saw Rhea I had to ask her what she used for her canopy because she was able to cool down her booth considerably. My booth was still hot today, but it was pleasant, at least more so that with a regular top.

Oh and today at the market there was a music stage set up! Just last weekend I mentioned in my blog that I couldn't wait for there to be a music stage again. Ask and you shall receive - eh?! :) This is the view from my booth - front row seats.